Comfortably Numb
by ScarlettRose390
Summary: Another caught in the sunshine. Cole wakes up in the back of his girlfriend's car, remembering nothing before then. Things get weird when he recives a strange text message from an unknown number. This story is not related to Joel and Clem.


**Comfortably Numb **

I woke up lying on the backseat of my girlfriend's car and everything else before then was a blur. My head kind of hurt. I recognized a Pink Floyd song playing up in the front where my girlfriend was at the wheel. This was weird to me. A part of me hoping that I had woken up in some parallel dimension where my girlfriend was as big a Pink Floyd fan as I was instead of hating them with distain. The other part knew that something had to be wrong.

I pushed myself up on the seat. I couldn't tell where we were driving through by looking out the window. Only unfamiliar trees stripped of their colors by the cold hands of winter. That's when she looked at me through the rearview mirror, noticing I was awake.

"Hey cutie." She said, taking one of her hands off the wheel for a moment to slide her fingers into my hair. They gently slid down my cheek, her eyes still away from me. Her fingers were cold. "How you feeling?"

"Fine." I didn't know what she meant by that. I wasn't sick and hadn't been in a while.

I guess I'd fallen asleep in her car after we went out or something. It was the only explanation. It was Saturday after all, and hanging out with her was all I ever did on weekends. That and posting funny pictures on facebook. And I guess I could include homework too, but I never really worry about my grades often.

_There is no pain you are receding_

_A distant ship, smoke on the horizon_

_You are only coming through in waves_

"Oh, by the way," her voice snapped me out of my thoughts. She took her icy hand off my cheek and started fishing through her coat pocket. She tossed a phone onto the backseat. "I borrowed this for a bit."

I leaned over and picked it up. The screen was dark when I flipped it open since it was off.

Something inside of me desperately yearned to say _I seriously wish you would stop "borrowing" my things, _but instead I said "Okay."

Neither one of us said much after that. Discluding the trippy CD it had gotten strangely quiet. I sat up in the backseat and leaned against the window. The glass was also cold. The setting sun's dying light was bright in my eyes behind the thin branches from unfamiliar trees. I hummed the music and muttered some of the lyrics as we drove on by.

_I can't explain you would not understand_

_This is not who I am_

_I have become comfortably numb_

We just stayed like that untilwithout a word she drove over to my house. I should have taken the CD out with me since it was mine, but I really wanted to get inside and I also kinda wanted to listen to the end of the song.

"Hey, uh, thanks for the lift." I said next to her open window when I got out of the car. "So, uh, you wanna come in?"

"No. It's been a long day." She sounded worn out, though I didn't know what we could have all day to warrant that.

"You sure? My family's fine as long as you ignore the cannibalism and our dead grandpa we keep in the basement."

She laughed a little but gave me a confused look. "What?"

"Forget it. I thought I was being funny."

"No, you are funny." She looked away from me again.

"Well, I guess I'll be seeing you at school."

I made it a few steps away, wanting to get out of the cold, but her fingers brushed on my wrist.

"Peter, wait." She said, strangely quiet.

I turned around to face her. "Yeah?"

She curled her finger toward herself. "Come here."

I knelt down, our faces at the same level. I thought of asking what was wrong again, but the few arguments we ever have start out that way. She starts to tell me about what she thinks are her problems, I tell her it doesn't matter, then I say something funny to make her feel better, but then she says I don't get it. It makes me wonder why she even comes to me in the first place. She just says "Because you're supposed to." I never know what to say to her.

"What is it? You can tell me."

"Sometimes people do horrible things they shouldn't do, but they don't do it because they want to. It's not because they like being horrible people or anything. It's just that sometimes what's best for someone isn't what everyone else consider right. But if they didn't do it the whole world would fall apart. It's just something they _have _to do. That's all a part of life. But it all works out in the end, so it's okay. People should stop complaining and just forget about the past already." She looked back at me, her eyes entreating my agreement.

Before I could say anything else, she grabbed the back of my head with her icy hand and yanked me to her lips. I didn't have any time to think about what to do next. All that came to my mind was that when I was this close she smelled like artificial peppermint.

When she pulled away, I just stared at her for a second, not knowing what to say. I felt this confused an awkward smile slowly growing on my face.

"Um, what was that for?" I asked, which is now the world record for worst thing to ever say after a girl kisses you, idiot!

"I don't know. It just felt right."

"Um, alright."

I was still smiling as I walked over to my porch and she drove away. The darkening sky let the red lights from the back of her car glow. I could see her has she left down the street. Once she was gone, I went inside my house.

My mom asked me as I headed upstairs where I was. I told her I was just with my girlfriend, which wasn't lying.

As I awaited the computer to turn on, I thought about checking my phone. I was hoping my girlfriend hadn't prank called anyone in my contacts asking for Taco Bell. Or worse, something offensive.

When I turned it on, going past the screensaver of my girlfriend and I at the carnival, I saw that there was a new message in my inbox. I almost didn't open it, thinking it was spam or something, but then I opened it. My computer made the noise that said that it was on and loaded, but I didn't touch it. I kept looking at the message, trying to figure it out.

** ?**

I just figured it was a wrong number.


End file.
